It’s because of the ability to trade items with other players. Any exploit that affected item drops or crafting creates the potential to upend the entire global market in the game, affecting the experience of many other players who might play mostly alone but will often look to the market to trade for items they need.

It does have PVP, and is generally online only.

They also make their money through in-game-purchases, so they want anti-cheat to protect people from unlocking that stuff for free.

Important to note those in-game purchases Fubarberry mentioned are critical to the game’s future, yet it’s still possible to play without opening the wallet. It’s rare that a game which is funded by MTX doesn’t constantly tell you how much you’re missing out on by not buying stuff.

The catch is that selling to other players is a hassle without the premium stash tab and IMO, PoE1’s default 4 stash tabs is simply not enough beyond act 10. If you only play the “Solo Self-Found” mode, it doesn’t matter too much since you only pick up stuff for yourself.

It is very easy to fill up with currency, gems, essences, maps, league mechanic stuff, levelling uniques as well as the usual stuff you pick up while levelling like belts and rings.

I say, if you end up enjoying the game enough to open your wallet, $30 is enough to fully enjoy the game, and your purchased stash tabs carry over between leagues, and between games where possible.

It’s also nice to know that the people getting all those “firsts” in chat at the start of a league aren’t hacking in items, as in Diablo 3 console edition.